Batches of otherwise essentially bulk foodstuffs are frequently placed in plastic bags for transportation and storage. As an example, the machine described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 32,963 entitled Packaging Apparatus and Method, issued Mar. 24, 1987 and assigned to the assignee of this patent, (here the Chicken Machine Patent), has had wide acceptance for bagging parts of cut up chickens for transportation to, and storage at, fast food chicken restaurants. The machine of the Chicken Machine Patent has also enjoyed commercial success for packaging bulk quantities of such products as candy and dog food when used in combination with the shuttle and seal mechanism described and claimed in the same assignee's Patent No. 5,077,958, entitled Packaging Machine and Method, issued Jan. 7, 1992, (here the Bulk Packager Patent). The machine has also been used successfully in combination with an improved version of the Bulk Packager as taught and claimed in commonly owned Patent No. 5,259,172, issued Nov. 9, 1993, entitled Packaging Machine and Method, (here the Briquetting Patent). With the machine of the Briquetting Patent bulk foodstuffs such as lettuce are packaged after the bag has been compacted to expel air and compress the package contents.
While the bagging machine of the referenced patents, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, has enjoyed commercial success, it has its limitations. First and foremost it is relatively complex and therefor expensive. Secondly its cycle rate is relatively slow, such that it is unsuited for truly high volume chicken and other foodstuff processing facilities. Because of its relatively slow cycle rate, when used with a supply conveyor, the conveyor must operate intermittently to avoid mixing one product batch with the next. When product batches are mixed, one can, for example with a ten piece chicken cut-up, end up with eleven chicken parts in one bag and nine in the next. Moreover, even if but ten parts are in a given bag, there may be parts from two chickens, such that, for example, one bag has three legs and perhaps the next bag has but one leg and three wings. Since many chicken processing plants operate with continuous conveyor feed of chicken parts to handle the throughput of a chicken processing line, the Chicken Bagger is not susceptible to satisfactory use in such a processing plant.
With the machine of the referenced patents, webs of preopened interconnected bags are used. The bags are open at the front and interconnected along the back. As a consequence an end bag has a tendency to swing rearwardly, especially when it is loaded, but also as it is being fed along a path of travel to a load station. Accordingly, the machine is constructed such that components are positioned behind the loading station, which components provide resistance to bags swinging rearwardly. With some food products, such as chickens, these components become coated when in use with food substances such as chicken fat. Accordingly, provisions must be made to facilitate the feed of bags to the load station without sticking to the components. To that end, the machine of the Chicken Bagger patent utilizes a number of belts which have downwardly movable reaches that engage bags as they are being fed to the load station. These belts are referred to in the Chicken Bagger patent as O ring like belts. This belt arrangement is both unduly complex and difficult to clean and sterilize effectively as is necessary in a food processing environment.
Another limitation of the machine of the referenced patents is that foodstuffs being deposited in the bag are gravity fed into bags which are generally vertically oriented at the load station. While this is quite satisfactory for many foodstuffs, it is unsatisfactory, for example, for bagging a number of bagels delivered to the machine on a tray. Gravity feed of a quantity of such products is apt to damage the products.
Machines have been constructed in which products are inserted into horizontally supported bags. Others have provided for angular adjustment of the orientation of a bagging machine. However most prior machines have lacked the ability to position a load station assembly such that bags being loaded may be horizontally or vertically oriented or at selected orientations between the horizontal and the vertical.
Under regulations of the Food and Drug Administration, where two metal members abut, welds must be provided to avoid the presence of crevices where foodstuffs can collect. The obvious reason is that such collected foodstuffs can become an environment for germ cultures. Because of these regulations, machines of the referenced patents have welds which are not needed for structural integrity of the machine, but rather are provided only for the purpose of complying with FDA regulations.
In many applications it is desirable to imprint information about a product being packaged, the date of packaging and/or instructions as to its handling as a part of the machine bagging operation. The machine of the referenced patents is lacking in provision for the presence of such an imprinter and, should an imprinter be present, there is no provision for the protection of such an imprinter during a machine cleaning operation. As a consequence such information is often hand stamped on bags after loading.
Another shortcoming of the machine of the referenced patents is that its configuration is such that if conveyor fed, the conveyor often must be positioned as a side loader, rather than inline which militates against the provision of a linear path of food processing travel through a food processing facility.